January 21, 2024 • 20 mins
Have you ever wondered how the high rollers of finance keep their lives in balance? Rita Collins, regional director for corporate banking at NatWest, joins us to unravel this mystery, shedding light on the work-life balance in the fast-paced financial sector. Rita shares how NatWest's compassionate culture supported her through family hardships like a loved one's autism diagnosis. Beyond the boardroom, Rita's passion for sports, from the football terraces to the discipline of bodybuilding, illustrates the power of personal passions in cultivating resilience and joy. This episode isn't just another career talk—it's a journey into nurturing a fulfilling life amidst the demands of an ambitious career.
Listen to learn:
- How Rita prioritises health and family
- Ways in which your values can amplify team performance and personal success
- The importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance in a fast-paced work environment
- How to seize opportunities that could redefine your career
Find out more about We Are PoWEr here. 💫
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
The Northern Power Women podcast for your career
and your life, no matter whatbusiness you're in.
Hello, welcome to the NorthernPower Women podcast.
And this is the podcast whichis all about highlighting role
models and sharing somebrilliant personal professional
stories with you.
And what we want to do is hopeto bring you some of those top
tips, strategies, advice,guidance, whatever it may be, to
(00:42):
help you navigate you on yourown path.
And this week I'm delighted tobe joined by Rita Collins, who
is the regional director forcorporate banking at NatWest
Rita's over in beautiful York,living with her husband, their
daughter, six ducks, 15 chickensand a swarm of bees and Connie
the mini-dash I love littledashons.
(01:03):
Rita is a total foodie andself-confessed sports junkie and
adopted Yorkshire woman.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Welcome Rita to the pod.
Well, thank you so much when Ihear that, it makes me sound
like a farmer and I'm not.
We like our animals.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
You absolutely do, you really do.
Oh, my goodness, that is amenagerie, and I always love on
the podcast when I get thechance to chat in advance, and I
think we've had a good old chatup front, and one of the things
that you talk about is yourdifferent mantras, and you talk
very much about that.
Health and well-being first.
That's something that's reallyimportant to you, isn't it?
(01:39):
And really important in yourteams.
You're seeing you're in yourrole, but that's something that
is quite key, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, definitely.
So I had up a team.
I should kind of caveat thatit's corporate banking on the
Yorkshire and northeast side ofthe Penn Islands.
I think my colleague inManchester might get a little
bit upset that I've used that tothem otherwise.
Yeah, but it helps.
And well-being I meanfundamentally.
I head up a team so I'm notdirectly responsible for holding
customer relationships, and theway I see it is that my team
(02:09):
will bring the best ofthemselves to work if they are
healthy, and I mean that bothphysically and mentally, etc.
But I think we were justtalking prior and one of the
things that I always say to theteam is health and family first.
Always Things crop up day today, whether that's something to
do with them as individuals orsomething in their family, and
(02:31):
they need to go off and dealwith it.
And I just think it's superimportant that that comes first,
because the bank will always behere and there are other people
that can pick things up in yourabsence, but you're never going
to replace that time witheither your health or your
family.
So, yeah, super important.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
And you talk about finance, can have a reputation
of having that poor balance inyour life.
Is that the true reality?
I don't know.
I don't think there's anysector out there that's really
nailing work life balance.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah, I think it's really tough.
I mean, fundamentally, we'rehere to serve our customers,
aren't we?
So if we've got customerdemands at the end of each day
or whatever, we will do what wecan to meet those.
But I think, you know, when Ifirst started the bank and I
started in London in 2006, Ithink it was it felt very
(03:20):
different.
It felt very much that, youknow, you had to work from dawn
till dusk and then some, and bein the office constantly, and I
think that's definitely evolved.
You still have to work hard.
There's no taking away fromthat, but I do think there is a
better balance.
Like you say, I don't thinkanybody's nailed it.
If they have, if they could,let me know.
(03:40):
That would be amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
And you have spent, like you said, your whole career
, haven't you, at NatWest.
How did you know you wanted towork in finance?
What was your jump or leap intothe, into NatWest?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
I didn't.
I used to joke I still don'tknow what I want to do when I
grow up.
And I fell into NatWest.
So I graduated back in 2006.
Sadly, my dad, who was amassive influence on my life, he
passed away between my secondand my third year and that was
(04:14):
the time where everybody waskind of applying for graduate
schemes and all of that.
And the time kind of passed meby because my life was about
something very different.
I graduated, I kind of gotthrough that final year.
I wasn't I wasn't really myself, but I got there and then I
thought, oh my God, what do I do?
My sister worked for a businesswho banked with RBS at the time
(04:37):
, now NatWest and so she askedher bank manager if I could have
work experience.
So I started on two weeks workexperience and not a graduate,
and not on the graduate scheme.
I've got a law degree but noneof that mattered.
I came in on two weeks workexperience and I've not left,
and I came in on the smallestsalary, so that the starting
(04:59):
rung of salary in sort ofcorporate banking, and then just
slowly worked my way sidewaysupwards in different, different
directions over the course ofthe last what 17 years, 18 years
and that's really interestingbecause we do.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
We run monthly power ups, virtual power up sessions,
which is all about passing onyour skills and your knowledge
in trying to give peopleopportunities to see what it's
like in the world, because it'shard, isn't it?
It's hard, you know.
Career's guidance, I think, isalways been sort of quite
challenging.
So I think it you know, to tryand find that way, I think the
more that people the idea thatyou had that two week work
(05:36):
experience you can actually lookunder the bonnet to a certain
extent and not you know it inthose two weeks, but that's
amazing and you know, you, theimportance of giving back, I
think is really keen.
I know something that's yourpassionate about as well.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Definitely.
So you know, I've got a kind ofmentality of paying it forward
and I think you know, ultimatelywe're on the Northern Power
Women podcast.
I'm a female in what'sperceived to be a male dominated
environment or a male dominatedindustry and it is.
You know, it's still very muchthat, and the bank has been
fantastic and change ishappening.
(06:11):
We've kind of pledged to havefull gender balance by 2030.
Things are changing but changetakes time.
So I'm really passionate at kindof turning around and making
sure that I'm talking to thepeople coming through the
organization to say you know,you can absolutely do what you
want to do.
You know, whatever it is,whatever anybody wants to do,
(06:32):
I'm a full believer that if youwant to do something, you can
make that happen.
And I just kind of make surethat I'm passing along any
experience I've had good and notso good Because you know, life
is life.
We all make mistakes or we havedifficult experiences that we
have and just talk about kind ofyou know what I've done and
some of my kind of mantras andlessons, I guess.
(06:53):
So one of the things I alwaystalk about is just say, yes, you
know, when you're given anopportunity, you know, and this
is more so kind of in theyounger years because, as you,
as we tend to get older, we getmore kind of dependency.
So, whether that be otherhalves, mortgages, children,
whatever it is, but in the earlyyears, when you've got the
ability to just say yes, so it's.
You know, do you want to work onthis project?
(07:14):
Absolutely.
Do you want to be consideredfor this role?
Yeah, absolutely.
Don't worry about thepromotions and all of that, it
will happen.
And I think the thing is is,whilst I go and I had these
conversations with some of theyoungsters and I was at a talent
program last week doing exactlythat I come away feeling really
inspired.
You know it lights a fuel or afire in me because they're just
(07:37):
so passionate and that you knowit's exciting.
And they were there doing some.
They had a task where they hadto generate some ideas that
interacting with the youngergeneration in the community, and
they had some fantastic ideas,two of which I think might
actually go further.
But yeah, I really enjoy thekind of development aspect of my
role and spend a lot of timeoutside my day to day kind of
(07:59):
responsibilities.
Talking to youngsters may landfemale, but I do, like I say,
have a bit of a passion forfemales coming through.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
And time is one of the biggest gifts.
We talked about that on thepodcast before.
Your time is one of the biggestthings that you can give, and I
know you're particularlyfocused as well about supporting
individuals from diversebackgrounds.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Tell us about that.
Yeah, so I'm not sure ifanybody will be able to see this
, and with a name like RitaCollins, it may not give me away
, but I'm, my background isIndians, and both my parents
were born in India.
I was born in this country, I'mfemale, I'm working in you know
what was historically a maledominated environment.
But more than anything, I havea young daughter.
(08:43):
She is nine today actually.
She is autistic.
She was diagnosed with autismabout three years ago and I see
how differently she sees theworld and I see how differently
she responds to the world.
So I feel as though I have aduty, responsibility not just to
my daughter but, I guess, a bitof a wider civic duty, to make
(09:06):
sure that there is diversity ofthoughts, because, fundamentally
, if we all think the same, thenwe'll all do the same thing and
nothing changes.
It's like an echo chamber, isn'tit?
Oh yeah, I think that's a greatidea, oh, fantastic, nobody's
challenging.
And I think it's really greatwhen you get people from all
kinds of backgrounds, whetherthat's different socioeconomic
backgrounds, whether that's, youknow, male, female, it's
(09:28):
different ethnicities, whateverit is.
The more people you can bringaround a table, the better
solutions you will come to and,fundamentally, more than
anything, as an organization, weneed to represent our
communities, and our communitiesaren't just you know.
You know God, I love that.
I don't know it's been so easy,but you know, it's not just one
sort of one aspect of thedemographic, it's not just all
(09:52):
male or all female or all youngor all old, it's across the
spectrum and we need to bemindful of that and we need to
replicate that in order to bestserve them.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Absolutely.
I couldn't agree more.
I think when you're havingconversations, whatever
conversations you have, you needto make sure that you've got
representation around the table,whether it be age, whether it
be geo location, it's everything, isn't it?
And you know we talk aboutlocation where you are and
adopted and adopted Northerner.
When you made the big sort ofthe big move up north, did you
(10:23):
notice any sort of keydifferences from working in
London to working up north?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah, I think so.
I mean, first of all, I didn'thave that awful commute into
London which even now haunts me,absolutely haunts me.
But I think what I would say isI've had to work hard in both
the north and the south, but inthe north there seems to be a
better balance of work life andI don't know if it's a
(10:51):
geographical point.
So in London, if you want to goout every night of the week
with your professional network,you probably could.
Everyone tends to commute intoLondon and there's a big
nightlife.
And, funnily enough, when Ifirst moved to Leeds back in
2012, it was before the TrinityI remember on a Thursday going
(11:13):
into Leeds after work to think,oh yeah, I'll just go around the
shops and get to know my localsort of shopping scent.
It was all shut and I justthought in London it closes a
lot later than this.
So that was one of my firstthings.
But more than that, it's kindof that work life balance and
then also kind of justculturally it feels a little bit
(11:36):
different and I wouldn't saythis was just unique to that
West or anything.
But at times in London when Italked to my friends and old
colleagues etc.
That I've still kept in contactwith.
At times it can feel like a bitof a rap race in London,
whereas I feel as though yourtime and your energy and things
like that, and you knoweverything you bring to the
(11:56):
table it seems to be valued morein the North.
But I don't know, that mightjust be a me thing.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
No, I think it is, and I think it's the different
opportunities that you have onyour doorstep.
You know, like you say,sometimes it's the commuting
into London for a reason,whereas on your doorstep, from
York, from Leeds, from Liverpool, from Manchester, you've got
everything, haven't you?
Everything you could ever, everwant.
Just probably saving yourselfsome money with the shops not
being open as late, that'sprobably not a bad thing.
(12:29):
Well, I'm not sure everydelivery man would agree that
that's a different story, Unlessyou've gone through your career
and, like you say, you've notnecessarily had a straight route
.
You've kind of gone.
Sometimes it's that which gotlike a pinball approach,
sometimes, isn't it where you'regoing from left to right and
obviously you've grown a family,you've got your daughter,
(12:51):
you've got your animals, andwhat's NatWest or the sector or
the industry done to support youon your way up?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Yeah, I mean honestly , I could not have asked for
more support from NatWest.
I say NatWest it's probablymore the people that I've worked
alongside and you know when Ithink about when I moved up I
moved up in 2012, my husband wasin the army.
He got posted and I went into.
You know my boss said myhusband's going, I'd quite like
(13:23):
to go with him.
What can you do?
It wasn't a straightforward asthat because the first response
was nothing but sure enough,kind of six months later there
was a role creator for me inLeeds After I had my daughter.
I was supported with compressedhours, which was invaluable to
me and I know that that's notalways supported either within
(13:46):
our organization or wider.
But I've always taken the viewthat if you work hard and you
know, and you know your jobpermits it, because it's not
always possible and that that isgiven back to you in one way or
another in the support that youget.
And when we went through thatjourney of Eva's diagnosis, my
daughter's diagnosis with autism, that meant a lot of time at
(14:08):
hospital appointments and all ofthat stuff.
And again, I've only ever hadsupport from the people that
I've worked alongside and Ithink it comes.
You know it goes back to whatwe started this podcast with.
You know, health and familyfirst always.
And if I hadn't have been giventhat time, I would have really
struggled to have done a goodjob because I would have been
(14:29):
feeling really guilty about notbeing there for my daughter and
my husband, who was goingthrough it with with both of us.
And so, yeah, I've beenincredibly lucky.
But back to that, I like to payit forward.
I hope if you were to speak toanyone in my team they'd say
exactly the same that I look tosupport them in all of that
stuff and make sure that theyfeel well supported to kind of
(14:51):
go out and do what they need todo, whilst also, you know,
wanting them to do anexceptional job to the bank as
well.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
But one of the other things that makes you you is
your love of sport, and in any Ithink it was, I think we were
chatting earlier, it was in anyany format, sport is something
that's really really key to you.
Why and what?
Speaker 2 (15:13):
And so to watch pretty much anything with a
competitive edge, unless youwere living under a rock.
I don't think you must haveseen the darts over Christmas.
Everyone fell into the dartsand fell in love with Luke
Littler a little bit, Justwatching sort of a 16 year old
lad go in and it was amazing.
(15:33):
But generally I can fall intoanything with a competitive edge
.
My first love is football.
It always has been one of twodaughters to an Indian man.
He had no sons.
I became his quasi son in termsof watching the football, In
terms of participating.
I've always been a sports junkie.
So, whether it's team sportsand netball has always been a
(15:55):
passion and I've run a marathon,a couple of halves.
I've cycled.
I organized and cycled 72 milesfor a few years for charity.
Last year I competed inbodybuilding, which is probably
a bit random to some people, butI just.
The reason why is I'm a bigbeliever in the fact that I am a
(16:17):
better and nicer person becauseI play, play sports or train or
whatever it is.
I need that time to releaseenergy, frustration, whatever it
is, and I come back a betterperson and I notice it in myself
if I haven't trained or Ihaven't exercised for a while,
(16:38):
and the same goes to nutrition.
If I'm not eating well, Ibecome a bit crabby and a bit
miserable, etc.
And I can feel it in myself.
So yeah, I've always said thatI train to be a nicer person,
basically.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
And you did.
It was last year that you didthe bodybuilding and you know
that had its challenges.
And what's what's going to befor the year ahead?
What?
What do you think?
Do you think it'll be Somethingyou've already done that you'll
rediscover, or something brandnew?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
maybe dark God, I don't think anybody would let me
near a dance board, if they'resaying and I actually talked
about this with my husband overChristmas and for as far back as
I can remember, I've always hadsome kind of sporting goal or
some kind of physical goal,whatever it is.
You know, as I was in the darkdepths of prep, which was what
(17:28):
you call that dieting periodbefore your competition, I
signed up to do the YorkshireThree Peaks, which I did in
September for the YorkshireBeats Cancer.
That, you know, fantastic event, really great event.
But I have made I don't know ifyou'd call it a New Year's
resolution, but I've essentiallysaid I'm not going to have any
kind of physical goal orchallenge for myself this year,
(17:52):
and I can't tell you howchallenging that is in itself.
So you know, even the otherweek I've just gone back to
running again and one of myfriends was saying that they're
now running and I literally wentoh, maybe we could, and then I
was like no, no, stop yourself.
No, no, no, thanks, just getthrough the year.
And if I get there, I'll bevery surprised as well anybody
(18:13):
that knows me.
But yeah, that's my goal to notactually have an objective or
goal to do this year.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
That's hard.
When you've got the, you know.
One of your mantras is sort ofsay yes, say yes to opportunity.
So maybe we're just going tohave to see what you stumble
across on the way.
And finally, you talked aboutbeing a foodie.
What's your favourite food?
Speaker 2 (18:33):
I have the sweetest tooth known to man.
So I am a bit like you weresaying prior to kind of coming
on to this podcast.
One of my favourite things todo is just to have really good
company over what I would callit really good food.
I'm cooking it, of course, Isay it's good and you know, and
a few drinks flowing as well,and I'm known for my desserts,
(18:55):
and the kind of one that I sayis probably.
Well, there's two that I call mypièce de résistance.
So one is my sticky toffeepudding, which my husband's
grand dad is a sweet tooth andhe's stopped eating sticky
toffee pudding anywhere, apartfrom when he comes to ours,
which I think is lovely.
But the the other one is haveyou been to the ivy where they
do the, the chocolate bomb, thechocolate sphere, and you know?
(19:18):
So I took that and I've putsome chocolate brownie in it
inside of that chocolate soil,and then a hot salted caramel
pouring sauce with vanilla icecream, and it looks.
It's one of those that looksgreat, but it also tastes okay
too.
So I probably say that.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Well, you know what we've just done?
Our tasting for the northernpower woman awards.
So we had four starters, fourmain, three desserts.
It was absolutely.
It felt like the vicaridibblysketch while you're eating sort
of three, three dinners.
It was absolutely amazing, butis that is how it looks as well,
isn't it?
Oh, anyway, we could talk aboutfood or down.
Well, we will continue.
Rita, thank you so much forjoining me on today's podcast.
(19:56):
I really, really appreciate it.
Thank you for having me andthank all of you for listening.
Thank you so much.
Stay connected on all oursocials at North Power Women on
Twitter and Northern Power Womenon all of the others, and leave
us a review.
We'd love that.
I'll get in touch.
Podcast atnorthernpowerwomencom.
My name is Simone.
This is the Northern PowerWomen podcast and what goes on
(20:17):
media.
The Northern Power Women podcast for your career
and your life, no matter whatbusiness you're in.
Hello, welcome to the NorthernPower Women podcast.
And this is the podcast whichis all about highlighting role
models and sharing somebrilliant personal professional
stories with you.
And what we want to do is hopeto bring you some of those top
tips, strategies, advice,guidance, whatever it may be, to
(00:42):
help you navigate you on yourown path.
And this week I'm delighted tobe joined by Rita Collins, who
is the regional director forcorporate banking at NatWest
Rita's over in beautiful York,living with her husband, their
daughter, six ducks, 15 chickensand a swarm of bees and Connie
the mini-dash I love littledashons.
(01:03):
Rita is a total foodie andself-confessed sports junkie and
adopted Yorkshire woman.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Welcome Rita to the pod.
Well, thank you so much when Ihear that, it makes me sound
like a farmer and I'm not.
We like our animals.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
You absolutely do, you really do.
Oh, my goodness, that is amenagerie, and I always love on
the podcast when I get thechance to chat in advance, and I
think we've had a good old chatup front, and one of the things
that you talk about is yourdifferent mantras, and you talk
very much about that.
Health and well-being first.
That's something that's reallyimportant to you, isn't it?
(01:39):
And really important in yourteams.
You're seeing you're in yourrole, but that's something that
is quite key, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, definitely.
So I had up a team.
I should kind of caveat thatit's corporate banking on the
Yorkshire and northeast side ofthe Penn Islands.
I think my colleague inManchester might get a little
bit upset that I've used that tothem otherwise.
Yeah, but it helps.
And well-being I meanfundamentally.
I head up a team so I'm notdirectly responsible for holding
customer relationships, and theway I see it is that my team
(02:09):
will bring the best ofthemselves to work if they are
healthy, and I mean that bothphysically and mentally, etc.
But I think we were justtalking prior and one of the
things that I always say to theteam is health and family first.
Always Things crop up day today, whether that's something to
do with them as individuals orsomething in their family, and
(02:31):
they need to go off and dealwith it.
And I just think it's superimportant that that comes first,
because the bank will always behere and there are other people
that can pick things up in yourabsence, but you're never going
to replace that time witheither your health or your
family.
So, yeah, super important.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
And you talk about finance, can have a reputation
of having that poor balance inyour life.
Is that the true reality?
I don't know.
I don't think there's anysector out there that's really
nailing work life balance.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah, I think it's really tough.
I mean, fundamentally, we'rehere to serve our customers,
aren't we?
So if we've got customerdemands at the end of each day
or whatever, we will do what wecan to meet those.
But I think, you know, when Ifirst started the bank and I
started in London in 2006, Ithink it was it felt very
(03:20):
different.
It felt very much that, youknow, you had to work from dawn
till dusk and then some, and bein the office constantly, and I
think that's definitely evolved.
You still have to work hard.
There's no taking away fromthat, but I do think there is a
better balance.
Like you say, I don't thinkanybody's nailed it.
If they have, if they could,let me know.
(03:40):
That would be amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
And you have spent, like you said, your whole career
, haven't you, at NatWest.
How did you know you wanted towork in finance?
What was your jump or leap intothe, into NatWest?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
I didn't.
I used to joke I still don'tknow what I want to do when I
grow up.
And I fell into NatWest.
So I graduated back in 2006.
Sadly, my dad, who was amassive influence on my life, he
passed away between my secondand my third year and that was
(04:14):
the time where everybody waskind of applying for graduate
schemes and all of that.
And the time kind of passed meby because my life was about
something very different.
I graduated, I kind of gotthrough that final year.
I wasn't I wasn't really myself, but I got there and then I
thought, oh my God, what do I do?
My sister worked for a businesswho banked with RBS at the time
(04:37):
, now NatWest and so she askedher bank manager if I could have
work experience.
So I started on two weeks workexperience and not a graduate,
and not on the graduate scheme.
I've got a law degree but noneof that mattered.
I came in on two weeks workexperience and I've not left,
and I came in on the smallestsalary, so that the starting
(04:59):
rung of salary in sort ofcorporate banking, and then just
slowly worked my way sidewaysupwards in different, different
directions over the course ofthe last what 17 years, 18 years
and that's really interestingbecause we do.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
We run monthly power ups, virtual power up sessions,
which is all about passing onyour skills and your knowledge
in trying to give peopleopportunities to see what it's
like in the world, because it'shard, isn't it?
It's hard, you know.
Career's guidance, I think, isalways been sort of quite
challenging.
So I think it you know, to tryand find that way, I think the
more that people the idea thatyou had that two week work
(05:36):
experience you can actually lookunder the bonnet to a certain
extent and not you know it inthose two weeks, but that's
amazing and you know, you, theimportance of giving back, I
think is really keen.
I know something that's yourpassionate about as well.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Definitely.
So you know, I've got a kind ofmentality of paying it forward
and I think you know, ultimatelywe're on the Northern Power
Women podcast.
I'm a female in what'sperceived to be a male dominated
environment or a male dominatedindustry and it is.
You know, it's still very muchthat, and the bank has been
fantastic and change ishappening.
(06:11):
We've kind of pledged to havefull gender balance by 2030.
Things are changing but changetakes time.
So I'm really passionate at kindof turning around and making
sure that I'm talking to thepeople coming through the
organization to say you know,you can absolutely do what you
want to do.
You know, whatever it is,whatever anybody wants to do,
(06:32):
I'm a full believer that if youwant to do something, you can
make that happen.
And I just kind of make surethat I'm passing along any
experience I've had good and notso good Because you know, life
is life.
We all make mistakes or we havedifficult experiences that we
have and just talk about kind ofyou know what I've done and
some of my kind of mantras andlessons, I guess.
(06:53):
So one of the things I alwaystalk about is just say, yes, you
know, when you're given anopportunity, you know, and this
is more so kind of in theyounger years because, as you,
as we tend to get older, we getmore kind of dependency.
So, whether that be otherhalves, mortgages, children,
whatever it is, but in the earlyyears, when you've got the
ability to just say yes, so it's.
You know, do you want to work onthis project?
(07:14):
Absolutely.
Do you want to be consideredfor this role?
Yeah, absolutely.
Don't worry about thepromotions and all of that, it
will happen.
And I think the thing is is,whilst I go and I had these
conversations with some of theyoungsters and I was at a talent
program last week doing exactlythat I come away feeling really
inspired.
You know it lights a fuel or afire in me because they're just
(07:37):
so passionate and that you knowit's exciting.
And they were there doing some.
They had a task where they hadto generate some ideas that
interacting with the youngergeneration in the community, and
they had some fantastic ideas,two of which I think might
actually go further.
But yeah, I really enjoy thekind of development aspect of my
role and spend a lot of timeoutside my day to day kind of
(07:59):
responsibilities.
Talking to youngsters may landfemale, but I do, like I say,
have a bit of a passion forfemales coming through.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
And time is one of the biggest gifts.
We talked about that on thepodcast before.
Your time is one of the biggestthings that you can give, and I
know you're particularlyfocused as well about supporting
individuals from diversebackgrounds.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Tell us about that.
Yeah, so I'm not sure ifanybody will be able to see this
, and with a name like RitaCollins, it may not give me away
, but I'm, my background isIndians, and both my parents
were born in India.
I was born in this country, I'mfemale, I'm working in you know
what was historically a maledominated environment.
But more than anything, I havea young daughter.
(08:43):
She is nine today actually.
She is autistic.
She was diagnosed with autismabout three years ago and I see
how differently she sees theworld and I see how differently
she responds to the world.
So I feel as though I have aduty, responsibility not just to
my daughter but, I guess, a bitof a wider civic duty, to make
(09:06):
sure that there is diversity ofthoughts, because, fundamentally
, if we all think the same, thenwe'll all do the same thing and
nothing changes.
It's like an echo chamber, isn'tit?
Oh yeah, I think that's a greatidea, oh, fantastic, nobody's
challenging.
And I think it's really greatwhen you get people from all
kinds of backgrounds, whetherthat's different socioeconomic
backgrounds, whether that's, youknow, male, female, it's
(09:28):
different ethnicities, whateverit is.
The more people you can bringaround a table, the better
solutions you will come to and,fundamentally, more than
anything, as an organization, weneed to represent our
communities, and our communitiesaren't just you know.
You know God, I love that.
I don't know it's been so easy,but you know, it's not just one
sort of one aspect of thedemographic, it's not just all
(09:52):
male or all female or all youngor all old, it's across the
spectrum and we need to bemindful of that and we need to
replicate that in order to bestserve them.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Absolutely.
I couldn't agree more.
I think when you're havingconversations, whatever
conversations you have, you needto make sure that you've got
representation around the table,whether it be age, whether it
be geo location, it's everything, isn't it?
And you know we talk aboutlocation where you are and
adopted and adopted Northerner.
When you made the big sort ofthe big move up north, did you
(10:23):
notice any sort of keydifferences from working in
London to working up north?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah, I think so.
I mean, first of all, I didn'thave that awful commute into
London which even now haunts me,absolutely haunts me.
But I think what I would say isI've had to work hard in both
the north and the south, but inthe north there seems to be a
better balance of work life andI don't know if it's a
(10:51):
geographical point.
So in London, if you want to goout every night of the week
with your professional network,you probably could.
Everyone tends to commute intoLondon and there's a big
nightlife.
And, funnily enough, when Ifirst moved to Leeds back in
2012, it was before the TrinityI remember on a Thursday going
(11:13):
into Leeds after work to think,oh yeah, I'll just go around the
shops and get to know my localsort of shopping scent.
It was all shut and I justthought in London it closes a
lot later than this.
So that was one of my firstthings.
But more than that, it's kindof that work life balance and
then also kind of justculturally it feels a little bit
(11:36):
different and I wouldn't saythis was just unique to that
West or anything.
But at times in London when Italked to my friends and old
colleagues etc.
That I've still kept in contactwith.
At times it can feel like a bitof a rap race in London,
whereas I feel as though yourtime and your energy and things
like that, and you knoweverything you bring to the
(11:56):
table it seems to be valued morein the North.
But I don't know, that mightjust be a me thing.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
No, I think it is, and I think it's the different
opportunities that you have onyour doorstep.
You know, like you say,sometimes it's the commuting
into London for a reason,whereas on your doorstep, from
York, from Leeds, from Liverpool, from Manchester, you've got
everything, haven't you?
Everything you could ever, everwant.
Just probably saving yourselfsome money with the shops not
being open as late, that'sprobably not a bad thing.
(12:29):
Well, I'm not sure everydelivery man would agree that
that's a different story, Unlessyou've gone through your career
and, like you say, you've notnecessarily had a straight route
.
You've kind of gone.
Sometimes it's that which gotlike a pinball approach,
sometimes, isn't it where you'regoing from left to right and
obviously you've grown a family,you've got your daughter,
(12:51):
you've got your animals, andwhat's NatWest or the sector or
the industry done to support youon your way up?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Yeah, I mean honestly , I could not have asked for
more support from NatWest.
I say NatWest it's probablymore the people that I've worked
alongside and you know when Ithink about when I moved up I
moved up in 2012, my husband wasin the army.
He got posted and I went into.
You know my boss said myhusband's going, I'd quite like
(13:23):
to go with him.
What can you do?
It wasn't a straightforward asthat because the first response
was nothing but sure enough,kind of six months later there
was a role creator for me inLeeds After I had my daughter.
I was supported with compressedhours, which was invaluable to
me and I know that that's notalways supported either within
(13:46):
our organization or wider.
But I've always taken the viewthat if you work hard and you
know, and you know your jobpermits it, because it's not
always possible and that that isgiven back to you in one way or
another in the support that youget.
And when we went through thatjourney of Eva's diagnosis, my
daughter's diagnosis with autism, that meant a lot of time at
(14:08):
hospital appointments and all ofthat stuff.
And again, I've only ever hadsupport from the people that
I've worked alongside and Ithink it comes.
You know it goes back to whatwe started this podcast with.
You know, health and familyfirst always.
And if I hadn't have been giventhat time, I would have really
struggled to have done a goodjob because I would have been
(14:29):
feeling really guilty about notbeing there for my daughter and
my husband, who was goingthrough it with with both of us.
And so, yeah, I've beenincredibly lucky.
But back to that, I like to payit forward.
I hope if you were to speak toanyone in my team they'd say
exactly the same that I look tosupport them in all of that
stuff and make sure that theyfeel well supported to kind of
(14:51):
go out and do what they need todo, whilst also, you know,
wanting them to do anexceptional job to the bank as
well.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
But one of the other things that makes you you is
your love of sport, and in any Ithink it was, I think we were
chatting earlier, it was in anyany format, sport is something
that's really really key to you.
Why and what?
Speaker 2 (15:13):
And so to watch pretty much anything with a
competitive edge, unless youwere living under a rock.
I don't think you must haveseen the darts over Christmas.
Everyone fell into the dartsand fell in love with Luke
Littler a little bit, Justwatching sort of a 16 year old
lad go in and it was amazing.
(15:33):
But generally I can fall intoanything with a competitive edge
.
My first love is football.
It always has been one of twodaughters to an Indian man.
He had no sons.
I became his quasi son in termsof watching the football, In
terms of participating.
I've always been a sports junkie.
So, whether it's team sportsand netball has always been a
(15:55):
passion and I've run a marathon,a couple of halves.
I've cycled.
I organized and cycled 72 milesfor a few years for charity.
Last year I competed inbodybuilding, which is probably
a bit random to some people, butI just.
The reason why is I'm a bigbeliever in the fact that I am a
(16:17):
better and nicer person becauseI play, play sports or train or
whatever it is.
I need that time to releaseenergy, frustration, whatever it
is, and I come back a betterperson and I notice it in myself
if I haven't trained or Ihaven't exercised for a while,
(16:38):
and the same goes to nutrition.
If I'm not eating well, Ibecome a bit crabby and a bit
miserable, etc.
And I can feel it in myself.
So yeah, I've always said thatI train to be a nicer person,
basically.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
And you did.
It was last year that you didthe bodybuilding and you know
that had its challenges.
And what's what's going to befor the year ahead?
What?
What do you think?
Do you think it'll be Somethingyou've already done that you'll
rediscover, or something brandnew?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
maybe dark God, I don't think anybody would let me
near a dance board, if they'resaying and I actually talked
about this with my husband overChristmas and for as far back as
I can remember, I've always hadsome kind of sporting goal or
some kind of physical goal,whatever it is.
You know, as I was in the darkdepths of prep, which was what
(17:28):
you call that dieting periodbefore your competition, I
signed up to do the YorkshireThree Peaks, which I did in
September for the YorkshireBeats Cancer.
That, you know, fantastic event, really great event.
But I have made I don't know ifyou'd call it a New Year's
resolution, but I've essentiallysaid I'm not going to have any
kind of physical goal orchallenge for myself this year,
(17:52):
and I can't tell you howchallenging that is in itself.
So you know, even the otherweek I've just gone back to
running again and one of myfriends was saying that they're
now running and I literally wentoh, maybe we could, and then I
was like no, no, stop yourself.
No, no, no, thanks, just getthrough the year.
And if I get there, I'll bevery surprised as well anybody
(18:13):
that knows me.
But yeah, that's my goal to notactually have an objective or
goal to do this year.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
That's hard.
When you've got the, you know.
One of your mantras is sort ofsay yes, say yes to opportunity.
So maybe we're just going tohave to see what you stumble
across on the way.
And finally, you talked aboutbeing a foodie.
What's your favourite food?
Speaker 2 (18:33):
I have the sweetest tooth known to man.
So I am a bit like you weresaying prior to kind of coming
on to this podcast.
One of my favourite things todo is just to have really good
company over what I would callit really good food.
I'm cooking it, of course, Isay it's good and you know, and
a few drinks flowing as well,and I'm known for my desserts,
(18:55):
and the kind of one that I sayis probably.
Well, there's two that I call mypièce de résistance.
So one is my sticky toffeepudding, which my husband's
grand dad is a sweet tooth andhe's stopped eating sticky
toffee pudding anywhere, apartfrom when he comes to ours,
which I think is lovely.
But the the other one is haveyou been to the ivy where they
do the, the chocolate bomb, thechocolate sphere, and you know?
(19:18):
So I took that and I've putsome chocolate brownie in it
inside of that chocolate soil,and then a hot salted caramel
pouring sauce with vanilla icecream, and it looks.
It's one of those that looksgreat, but it also tastes okay
too.
So I probably say that.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Well, you know what we've just done?
Our tasting for the northernpower woman awards.
So we had four starters, fourmain, three desserts.
It was absolutely.
It felt like the vicaridibblysketch while you're eating sort
of three, three dinners.
It was absolutely amazing, butis that is how it looks as well,
isn't it?
Oh, anyway, we could talk aboutfood or down.
Well, we will continue.
Rita, thank you so much forjoining me on today's podcast.
(19:56):
I really, really appreciate it.
Thank you for having me andthank all of you for listening.
Thank you so much.
Stay connected on all oursocials at North Power Women on
Twitter and Northern Power Womenon all of the others, and leave
us a review.
We'd love that.
I'll get in touch.
Podcast atnorthernpowerwomencom.
My name is Simone.
This is the Northern PowerWomen podcast and what goes on
(20:17):
media.
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